The main difference between ‘us’ in the ‘so-called’ civilised West, and the extremists from ‘so-called’ Islamic State is a matter of tolerance. Not to gluten, even though that’s a matter close to my heart, and certainly to my intestine, which lives nearby. Extremists are intolerant of pretty much everything. Unless its done, prayed, eaten, worshipped, everything according to their very narrow rules. We’re happy (ish) for them to eat, pray, worship, according to their wants and needs, as long as they don’t cut people’s heads off or blow things up. I think that’s reasonable.

So to sum up (not much to sum, I grant you); we are tolerant to everything; ‘they’ are tolerant to nothing. All Muslims can do what they want here, within our laws, obviously, which preclude beheadings and suicide vests, as long as they respect our right to do what we want, subject to those same laws. Which also protect the rights of gay men to hold hands in Sainsburys, by the way.

We’re tolerant; they’re not.

And then the French, the greatest mouthpiece for ‘libertee, fraternitee, egalitee’, has chosen, in certain cities, to ban the burkini. That rather odd (to my eyes) full body covering which is the chosen beachwear for Muslim women. To protect their modesty. And cover any waxing failures too. An added bonus. This is not about the covering up your women debate.

They Mayor of Nice banned it after the terrible massacre there, and now they’re banning it in parts of Corsica.

But if you preach ‘freedom for all’, you can’t then exclude certain classes just because it seems fashionable to do so. Or, in the case of the burkini, pretty unfashionable, but suitable to the cause.

If we are defending above all else, and we are, our right to live in a completely liberal, open and TOLERANT society, you can’t start banning things. If people are ‘free to adhere to their religion’, then let them, however odd, bizarre or silly we may find it. All religions are odd. They all have silly customs that really don’t do well in any reductionist paradigm. So don’t reduce them to ‘the bits’, just leave them alone.

The mayor in Corsica said he was banning the burkini because they represent extemism. They don’t. That’s bollocks. The burkini represents an adherence to a way of life alien to us in the West. Doesn’t make it wrong. Whether its a symbol of repression or a symbol of empowerment is the same argument you can use for a very skimpy bikini. But its not about that. Its about the fascistic exercise of banning something harmless because of what it represents.

You can’t be ‘tolerant’ to your own way of life and the exclusion of all others. That’s the whole point of tolerance.

Bloody French…

Happy Tuesday

A xxxx